Balinese surprises during the night...

Well, moved again to another room as the night time "entertainment" was getting rather noisy. It all started a few days ago with rumblings in the false ceiling of our room, faint at first but with successive days sounding somewhat more like a colllection of rodents running all over the roof area. The woman living next door had similar experiences, with the added flavour of sighting a somewhat large rat INSIDE her room. At first there was muted reaction from the staff at reception even when I also reported the same kind of entertainment, "..having rats running in our ceiling wearing hobnail boots…" at 3 am and all through the night.

Jo was getting a bit spooked by it all with visions of rats walking over her. In the morning I request to be moved to another room and we are allocated a so-called "de-luxe room". Tony, at reception does try to squeeze me for some extra money but I refuse. So, for the last 4 nights we are living without the nightly racket.

It has been rather hot and humid, Jo and I decide to spend our days closer to the beach, the ideal spot being close by the pool of a large Hotel nearby, bordering onto the beach road of Legian with the added benefit of the constant breeze coming off the ocean.

View along the promenade with Hotel deck chairs

We grab a deck chair each, collect a couple of towels from their towel counter and make ourselves comfortable with view of the ocean on their promenade. A great place to be on a hot day!

Jo, Just hangin loose

The beach across the road is setup with many a deck chair, most of them unoccupied but the throng of locals offering a multitude of services, from the obligatory beach massage, nail painting or having plaits put into hair to selling watches or baseball caps, are looking very languid, so business must be very slow for all of them.

Across from my deck chair on the Hotel promenade, someone has put up a boogie board in a tree and has written on the underside "Beach Bum Bar" underneath the words "SURF LESSON",

"Beach Bum Bar"

20 metres away, another sign, made of a broken surf board in the branches of a tree that reads "FRANK'S BAR", underneath, "Surfing Lesson".

"Frank's Bar"

Close by both enterprises, a few surf boards leaning against a tree and a beach umbrella with a table, a few Esky Coolers on top. No customers in evidence in either business. The bigger Hotels in the area seem to be pretty full but I suspect that most guests prefer the clean chlorinated water of the hotel pools to the polluted beach. The many sellers on the beach, obviously are not permitted entry on hotel property and so business will remain slow for all of them.